Helping Or Hindering:Environmental Locus Of Control, Subjective Enablers And Constraints, And Pro-Environmental Behaviors

Abstract Research has begun to examine the effects one’s belief in their responsibility for and ability to affect environmental outcomes (i.e., internal environmental locus of control) can have on their performance of pro-environmental behavior. We build upon this research by suggesting that pro-environmental consumption decisions are shaped not only by ecological dispositions, such as internal environmental locus of control, but also by perceptions of situational factors. Accordingly, we examine how perceptions of situational factors that impede vs. enable the enactment of sustainable behaviors mediate the relationship between pro-environmental dispositions and actions. To this end, two studies that use survey methodology were conducted. In Study 1, we examined the construct validity of our newly developed measures of subjective enabling and constraining factors, and in Study 2, we tested our theoretical framework. Our results show that consumers with higher levels of internal environmental locus of control are more (less) apt to perceive enabling (constraining) factors. The effects of such dispositions on behavior are partially mediated by situational constraints and enablers. These findings demonstrate that consumers’ pro-environmental agency doesn’t operate in a vacuum, but rather, first shapes perceptions of situational factors which, in turn, support or thwart pro-environmental behavior.